Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Cancer Free!

Christina told her story on Good Morning America today, where she announced that she had a double mastectomy three weeks ago. She will also have reconstructive surgery over the next 8 months.

She joked around in the interview by saying, "I'm going to have cute boobs 'til I'm 90, so there's that. I'll have the best boobs in the nursing home. I'll be the envy of all the ladies around the bridge table."

Christina made the very hard decision of removing both breast even though the cancer was contained in one breast. She said, "I just wanted to kind of be rid of it. So this was the choice I made and it was a tough one."

She tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation linked to breast and ovarian cancer. Her mother also battled breast cancer and cervical cancer.

Christina said that this experience has been an emotional roller coaster.

"Sometimes, you know, I cry and sometimes I scream and I get really angry and I get really like, you know, into wallowing in self-pity sometimes. And I think that's - it's all part of healing, and anyone who's going through it out there, it's OK to cry. It's OK to fall on the ground and just scream if you want to."

By keeping her sense of humor intact she said, "I've laughed so much in the last three weeks. I love living, and I really love my life, and I knew that from this moment on it was only going to be good that was going to be coming. Yeah, I'll face challenges, but you can't get any darker than where I've been. So knowing that in my soul gave me the strength to just say, 'I have to get out there and make this a positive.'"

Christina's cancer was detected early through an MRI. She said that she will be starting a new program to aid women who are high risk candidates for breast cancer meet the costs of MRI's which disappointingly, are not necessarily covered by insurance.